Plan to house 2,000 migrants at RAF Scampton pushed back by TWO months
A view of RAF Scampton
PA
Plans to house 2,000 asylum seekers at the former 'Dambusters' airbase in Lincolnshire have been delayed by at least a couple of months, GB News has learned.
RAF Scampton was due to receive the first batch of asylum seekers next month, but that won't now happen until at least October.
Scampton Parish Council said they were briefed by Home Office officials, who confirmed the delay.
The council said they were told there were delays in conducting surveys on the 14 buildings designated for migrant accommodation.
Huge numbers of migrants are still coming to Britain via small boats PAHome Office officials have also experienced difficulties in finding qualified personnel to oversee utility connections.
It comes as official sources confirmed to GB News that Home Office is working in contingency plans to set up dozens of marquees to deal with a suspected surge in small boat crossings in the weeks ahead.
Officials have now purchased the marquees, which are earmarked for a number of sites, including the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent
A similar proposal was rejected last year because of warnings it would trigger legal challenges based on inhumane treatment of asylum seekers
A record number of migrants arrived in the UK in 2022PAIt also forced Home Office officials to block book thousands of last-minute hotel rooms to house the extra arrivals.
The new marquees are intended to give officials some headroom, to hold migrants in those tents for a period of time before being moved on to other larger scale accommodation centres.
However, the Home Secretary's plans have been condemned by opposition politicians and refugee charities.
Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “It’s staggering the Home Secretary plans to use what a Government source compared to a concentration camp to house people seeking asylum – in the same week courts ruled she broke the law three times with her inhumane treatment of refugees.
Yvette Cooper
PA“The winners from this cruel plan will be the Home Office’s asylum housing contractors, who trouser tens of millions of pounds in taxpayer-subsidised profits as standards continue to.
“This is yet another way the Government has developed to demonise people seeking asylum, which is rooted in its deeply racist approach to refugee protection.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “I think this is in part an admission that the legislation that they promised would stop boat crossings, they promised would end all of the chaos, in fact they are not expecting it to work.
“I think at the heart of this, the Government is just failing to go after the criminal gangs that are driving and organising border crossings.”